Sixty Seconds with a Ryoken
by Strikepenguin5
Summary: A short 'mech battle set during operation Bulldog. My first MW/BTC fic on FFN! An Enforcer and a Ryoken face off.


By Strikepenguin 5

Disclaimer: I do not actually own Battletech or 'Mechwarrior.  And quite frankly, with all the license trading and separate companies that have produced merchandise for the series, I'm not sure who owns it anymore.

Locked tight in the cockpit of his _Enforcer_, Shaun watched in horror as the enemy Smoke Jaguar _Ryoken-B_ smashed his lancemate's _Centurion_ to bits.  The insanely fast, bird-legged omnimech had raced out of the shadows, heavy ultra autocannon blazing.  The tightly grouped shots caught the unprepared Esla Miller in the right breast of her humanoid machine, slicing through the fusion engine, cooking off the ammunition stored there, and totally gutting the 50-ton 'mech.  

          Shaun thumbed a switch on his right joystick and fired.  His _Enforcer_ bucked and trembled as its shotgun-style LBX autocannon fired off a salvo of submunitions that cratered the enemy 'mech with explosions.  Shaun then lined up his large laser with the _Ryoken_'s oddly hunched over cockpit.  Instead, the laser melted armor from the Smoke Jaguar's center torso.  

          The enemy pilot replied by firing three of the extended-range lasers carried in the _Ryoken_'s right arm.  One of the beams of amplified light played over Shaun's _Enforcer_'s head.  He winced at the sudden flash of light and heat that boiled most of the armor covering the Battlemech's head, and shorted out one of the monitors on his command console.  Shaun knew he was outmatched.  He yelled into the radio for backup.

          "Contact, contact!  This is Borneo six!  Repeat this is Borneo six, grid Mike- seven-three!  Contact with lead enemy element, one _Ryoken_!  I've lost Borneo five!  If the rest of the clanners show up, I'll be in big trouble!"

          "Keep it tight, six.  This is Borneo lead.  Hatchback says that Loudmouth company has engaged main enemy force, so this must be a feint.  Remainder of Borneo eta one minute."

           "Roger that, Lead.  Six out."  Shaun had to survive less than a minute with this deadly Smoke Jaguar Onmimech.  

          As if to prove that the one minute would be all he needed, the clan pilot fired.

          Shaun had been certain of his survival until his 'mech rocked severely and his computer informed him that he was missing a large portion of his _Enforcer_.  The clanner's autocannon had savaged his right torso and nearly blown it and the adjoining arm off.  The lasers had eviscerated various parts of his war machine, the armor on his legs was down to half strength, his arms were in the same shape… 

          Shaun switched his LB-X autocannon over to slug shot and blasted the _Ryoken_ with everything he had.  The large laser vaporized armor on the _Ryoken_'s left arm, the one that was swollen with the massive rapid-firing cannon.  The LB-X cannon burrowed into the hunched-over omnimech's  center torso, and Shaun's small laser ripped a scar through the armor on the _Ryoken_'s left leg.  The clan pilot recoiled and the huge 55-ton 

'mech hop-skipped to the right, but both he and Shaun knew that the _Ryoken_ was far from out of the fight.

          Shaun tried desperately to run to the _Ryoken_'s right side, where the enemy pilot would have trouble bringing the huge gun in its left arm to bear on the damaged _Enforcer_.  Shaun waited for the temperature in the laser barrel to go down, selected a shotgun round for his autocannon, heard the round spin into place, and fired.  One of the LB-X submunitions scattered into the shoulder joint of the _Ryoken_ and exploded.  The remainder of the spreadfire ammunition knocked off armor plates all over the clan 'mech's right side.  Shaun's large laser also connected with the enemy _Ryoken_'s right arm, melting more armor and unbalancing the 'mech.  The _Ryoken_ started to stumble just as Shaun fired his small laser, tracing a line across the medium 'mech's cockpit.  Unfortunately, just before the pilot hit the ground, he managed to fire his weapons.

          Despite the angle and position of the _Ryoken_, the pilot managed to bring his monstrous, 'mech-eating autocannon to bear on Shaun's battered _Enforcer_.  The weapon double-fired, chewing all the armor off Shaun's center and left torsos, and damaging the internal structure that kept the inner sphere 'mech functioning.  Only two of the Clanner's lasers managed to strike the _Enforcer_, and those weapons pared more armor off of Shaun's arms, leaving his main weapons exposed to more and more enemy fire.  

          Taking advantage of his enemy's prone position on the ground, Shaun ran up to where the enemy lay and kicked the _Ryoken_, hoping to crush its cockpit or damage the 'mech further.  Shaun's kick crushed armor off of his enemy's right arm, then he fired a solid slug round from his LB-X gun into his enemy's right shoulder joint.  His laser did the most damage, as it sliced into a rent in the _Ryoken_'s left torso it touched off the autocannon ammunition stored there.  The CASE panels on the _Ryoken_'s back blew out, but since the clan pilot was lying on the ground, the 'mech's entire left side sheared off as the force of the explosion mangled the interior of the 'mech and damaged the fusion engine that kept it running.

          The injured clan pilot managed to get a shot off with his autocannon even as the ammunition in his 'mech exploded.  The stream of depleted-uranium slugs slammed into the center torso of Shaun's _Enforcer_.  Every light in his cockpit suddenly came to life, but above all the warning klaxons Shaun only heard one: the computer's monotone voice saying 

          "Reactor detonation inescapable.  Eject!  Eject!"  Shaun reached down and yanked on the red lever that would sent his command couch rocketing into the sky.  Explosive bolts mounted on the _Enforcer_'s cockpit detonated, splitting the giant machine's head open.  Retrorockets mounted on the base of Shaun's char activated, and he was pressed down by a giant hand of inertia as his chair began to rocket into the sky.  

          The _Enforcer_'s engine exploded in a white-hot corona of light and sound.

          When the rest of Borneo company arrived at Borneo six's last known location, they found the ruined and gutted _Enforcer_ laying on top of the fallen Smoke Jaguar _Ryoken_, the Jag pilot dead and Shaun unaccounted for.  

          "This is Borneo lead.  Command, get a medevac unit to sweep the area when it's clear.  We lost Borneo Six, but he might have ejected.  Also, get a salvage crew down here."  Borneo Lead glanced at the smoking remains of a _Centurion_ that lay fallen nearby.  "We might be able to recover some of this."

          As Borneo Company swept on through the rough terrain, they left behind their fallen comrade's _Enforcer_, a testament to a fallen warrior whose 'mech embraced his enemy even as he embraced death.


End file.
